The Itis Strikes Again

Michael ArceneauxMarch 18, 2008

This Nutty Negro Itis epidemic must be stopped. You would think crab season was at a record high the way so many kooky Black folk suffering from diarrhea of the mouth and severe pain from the stupid stick that’s obviously gone upside their heads are running off at the mouth. The latest victim of this ongoing phenomenon is Bill Maxwell of the St. Petersburg Times, who assails Black people that have dared to embrace Barack Obama’s campaign over Hillary Clinton’s in a column entitled, “Phony Black Friends Ditch Sen. Clinton.” Catchy.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should be leery of ever trusting the word of another black person, especially the word of elected officials, celebrities and other elites. She most certainly should never again trust the word of black preachers.

If you’re wondering: Yes, he’s serious.

To wit: While Obama was still wet behind the ears, Clinton was advocating for the Children’s Defense Fund, an organization that improved the lives of countless black children in urban and rural America.

She did so for a whopping year after law school. Then she went off to fight for the little guy via working for corporate law firms and serving on the board of Walmart.

When the U.S. Supreme Court of John Roberts last year rejected integration plans in two major public school districts in Louisville and Seattle, Clinton showed her disappointment in a speech shortly after the decision.

Whenever members of the Congressional Black Caucus needed extra clout to help them with black-related legislation, they turned to Clinton. When black leaders needed a powerful voice to add weight to a symbolic gesture, such as the commemoration of a civil rights cause or an event, they called Clinton. When they needed a keynote speaker for this or that gala, they called Clinton.

And then those no good coloreds just turned their back on Miss Hillary like the no good people they are. True enough she has done some good for women, children, and minorities, but who knew supporting righteous causes meant all those who benefited from it ought to offer indentured servitude to properly illustrate gratitude?

She had no way of knowing that reality would be turned on its head and that all of her good deeds and generosity would be forgotten and that many blacks would one day paint her as their enemy. She misjudged her supporters as did the character in Shakespeare’s play Henry VI, who said: “In thy face I see the map of honor, truth, and loyalty.”

Shakespeare? Would someone tell this Negro to please grow up. As far as I know Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson-Lee and several Black politicians are still supporting the Clinton sequel campaign. None of those women are passing, so are we a monolith or not?

Not all blacks have betrayed Clinton. Some have honorably, and courageously, stayed with her.

The honorable thing to do would be to drop Maxwell off in West Baltimore, South Houston, Bedstuy, or Compton in a Ronald Reagan t-shirt.

Win or lose, Hillary Clinton has earned the right to never trust the word of another black person. Somewhere between the Bible and the pseudo-wisdom of the barbershop, many blacks abandoned any sense of loyalty and betrayed a woman who has been a friend.

The same friend that allowed her husband, her surrogates, and her campaign managers to marginalize the first man of color to have a legitimate shot at becoming President as nothing more than a coke-abusing, fancy word using second-tier sequel to Jesse Jackson. The same woman married to the man responsible for welfare reform, harsher sentencing laws, and cuts in education that have left Black people with a generation that will soon make Soulja Boy look like Langston Hughes. With friends like that, who needs enemies? And with Black people like Bill Maxwell, who needs Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch, and Sean Hannity?